No More Math Fact Frenzy

Math fact instruction is often ineffective: lots of worksheets, drills, and rote memorization. This kind of instruction doesn’t serve students well.

No More Math Fact Frenzy addresses this by examining current research about how to effectively build students' math fact knowledge. The authors then share a new set of best-practices: classroom activities that build students’ number sense and strategies that lead to flexible thinking.

Full Description

"Pencils ready? On your mark...get set...begin!"

Remember flipping over a page full of unrelated fact problems and scrambling to answer as many as possible in a minute? Remember trying to memorize math facts by rote? Many of our children are still asked to learn this way­—even though research shows this approach can harm student learning more than help.

No More Math Fact Frenzy examines this research and concludes that our approaches to math fact instruction are often ineffective. We want our students to know their math facts. We know they’re better mathematicians when they’re comfortable with them. Yet the ways we ask students to learn them in many classrooms remain unproductive.

To address this, the authors outline three phases for helping students master their math facts.

Building foundational concepts and strategies

Learning more efficient reasoning strategies

Meaningful, ongoing practice leading to full fact fluency

Then they share recommendations for all three phrases: activities and games that build number sense, strategies that lead to flexible thinking, and ways to create and sustain a classroom culture of fluency. This kind of teaching helps students learn their math facts more successfully—and with less stress and anxiety.

"When we emphasize foundation concepts and reasoning strategies as the path towards building authentic fluency, students can develop their number sense, articulate their thinking, and understand the reasoning of others."